Open Thread

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Is Harry Reid getting ready to sue AP & John Solomon?

I hate putting this important a story up on a Saturday night, but I'm not gonna be scooped on this baby. Check out this Associated Press story from a few days back that nobody seemed to notice. It looks to me like Harry Reid is getting ready to sue the AP and their former ace reporter John Solomon.From the AP:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has hired Los Angeles celebrity attorney Martin Singer for legal work.

Singer is among Hollywood's most sought-after litigators and has represented Governor Schwarzenegger, Britney Spears and Bruce Willis, among others. His specialties include libel, copyright and privacy law.

Reid paid Singer $25,000 from his senatorial campaign account on December 14th, according to his most recent Federal Election Commission report.

Reid's spokesman, Jon Summers, said Singer was hired to help Reid respond to a story by The Associated Press that was critical of a Las Vegas land deal involving the senator. He said Reid got approval from the Senate Ethics Committee for the expenditure.

Here's an article about attorney Singer: "Raging Bulls: When It's Time for the Gloves to Come Off, These Attack Dogs of L.A. Law Get the Call." A snippet of the article:

When things go bad for a client--and we're talking off the cliff--the respectable barrister known for his or her brilliant transactional mind, hail-fellow connections and Ivy League charm may have to bring in a different type of attorney. One whose job is to dive into the gutter of a litigious, capitalistic society and win at all costs. In other words, a specialist: one of the pit bulls of L.A. law....

What these lawyers possess is the proven ability to go all the way, to a jury trial if necessary, and play by whatever rules are laid down to save their client's freedom or fortune in a civil or criminal matter. On the other hand, when one of them makes a phone call or sends a demand letter, arguments are often settled quickly ... and quietly.

"Marty Singer is a very nice man who loves his family," says Priscilla Presley of her own personal pit bull. "But if he thinks someone has done me harm, he is a stealth rottweiler."

More on Mr. Solomon from AMERICAblog and Media Matters and TPM Muckraker and TPM. Read the rest of this post...

Homophobic, anti-marriage-equality, right-wing Christian baseball star is getting divorced

Smoltz now:

Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz, 39, is getting a divorce. The agency that represents him -- Career Sports & Entertainment -- said Friday the pitcher and his wife, Dyan, had agreed to split after about 16 years of marriage. They have four school-age children, a son and three daughters.

Smoltz then:

“Smoltz, a devout Christian, criticized those who want to legalize gay marriage,” the AP reported. “‘What’s next? Marrying an animal?’ he asked derisively.”

Your soon-to-be ex-wife apparently did. She married a hypocrite too. Read the rest of this post...

Where is the RNC's outrage over Karl Rove's racism?

The Republican National Committee went wild when Howard Dean made a joke about minorities holding low-paying jobs in America (and his joke was intended to show how open the Democratic party is to minorities), but suddenly when Karl Rove makes a comment that isn't a joke at all about Mexicans working low-paying jobs (the comment was meant to demean the kind of work Mexicans do), suddenly the corporate media and the Republican party aren't making such a big fuss.

Howard Dean needed to make his mea culpa, so where is the White House's?

Here is what Rove just said about the immigration debate :

“I don’t want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas.”

And here is how the Republicans reacted when Dean made his joke.

RNC Chief: Dean Joke Was 'Racist'

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman blasted newly elected DNC chief Howard Dean on Tuesday for telling what he said was a "racist" joke to the Congressional Black Caucus.

"It's pretty offensive," Mehlman told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity. "It's pretty racist, if you ask me."

During a meeting with the CBC on Friday, Dean joked: "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here."

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One of our readers has a question about the Pelosi airplane brouhaha

Michael writes:

"The floating pleasure palace is a reconfigured Boeing 757 stored at Andrews Air Force Base with Air Force One and the rest of the fleet of executive aircraft."

"The aircraft has a game room, stateroom, showers, a communications center and seats 42 to 50 people, according to the Air Force."

"It costs taxpayers $22,000 an hour to operate, according to military and congressional sources."

So my question: why does the Air Force even have such a plane? Who uses this plane? Who has been using it? Forget what Nancy wants... why the heck are we taxpayers paying for a floating pleasure palace to begin with?

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Iran is cooperating with Al Qaeda -- or not. (Where's bin Laden, btw?)

Just yesterday, we learned from the Pentagon's Inspector General that the intelligence from the Defense Department linking Iraq to Al Qaeda was "dubious." But, the fake intel worked to get us in to one war, so Team Bush is using it again. For months, the Bush Administration is ratcheting up the rhetoric on Iran. They're getting ready to accuse Iran of cooperating with Al Qaeda -- but it might not be true this time either according to a report in today's Washington Post:

Last week, the CIA sent an urgent report to President Bush's National Security Council: Iranian authorities had arrested two al-Qaeda operatives traveling through Iran on their way from Pakistan to Iraq. The suspects were caught along a well-worn, if little-noticed, route for militants determined to fight U.S. troops on Iraqi soil, according to a senior intelligence official. The arrests were presented to Bush's senior policy advisers as evidence that Iran appears committed to stopping al-Qaeda foot traffic across its borders, the intelligence official said. That assessment comes at a time when the Bush administration, in an effort to push for further U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic, is preparing to publicly accuse Tehran of cooperating with and harboring al-Qaeda suspects.

Bush is only interested in Al Qaeda when it comes in handy for his war agenda. One might note that more than five years after "September the 11th," Bin Laden is still free and Al Qaeda has had a recruiting boon thanks to the Iraq war. So one more time, we're seeing that Bush is willing to put his political agenda ahead of what's really in our national security interests:

But several senior intelligence and counterterrorism officials worry that a public push regarding the al-Qaeda suspects held in Iran could jeopardize U.S. intelligence-gathering and prompt the Iranians to free some of the most wanted individuals.

"There was real debate about all this," said one counterterrorism official. "If we go public, the Iranians could turn them loose." The official added: "At this point, we know where these guys are and at least they are off the streets. We could lose them for years if we go down this path."

Kinda like we've lost Bin Laden for years? Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Long week. Much happened. GOP Senators still won't debate Iraq while the death toll soars. It was a great week for the media. They all had the stalking astronaut and Anna Nicole Smith. Good thing there wasn't any real news to cover.

Get it started. Read the rest of this post...

The new neocon push for war in Iran

Another springtime adventure? Obviously the invasion of Iraq is going well so the Pentagon has plenty of time to work on new plans and divert troops and equipment, just like when they unloaded Afghanistan and focused on Iraq.

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.

The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office.

Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons programme and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.

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Zsa Zsa's hubby says he may be father of Anna Nicole's baby

Okay, this has now entered the realm of high camp, and THAT we cover.

The husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor said Friday that he had a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith and may be her infant daughter's father. The claim by Prince Frederic von Anhalt comes amid a paternity suit over Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn....

Von Anhalt, 59, and Gabor, 90, have been married for more than 20 years....

Von Anhalt, who is Gabor's eighth husband, said he and Smith met in the 1990s when Smith was still married to elderly oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. He said Smith approached him and Gabor at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

"She was a very big fan of Zsa Zsa and wanted to be like Zsa Zsa," he said. "She wanted to be a princess."

He said the two started an affair soon after, meeting over the years in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. For much of that time, he said, Smith urged him to make her a princess like his wife.

But short of divorcing the actress, he said the only solution would have been adopting Smith. Von Anhalt said he did consider that and even filled out adoption papers, but Gabor refused to sign them....

Ronald Jason Palmieri, an attorney who has represented Gabor and von Anhalt for 15 years, was also skeptical about the paternity claim.

"I have to believe my client, but it's still surreal," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I would find it completely implausible that he is the father of that child, to put it lightly."

Context is everything. Now this is getting fun. Read the rest of this post...